Western Railroad Discussion > Request - UP trains and traffic through Vas Vegas in 2015

Hello all,

Not sure if this is Western or Nostalgia, but thought it was recent enough to post it here for starters...

I am asking on behalf of a guy who is interested in modeling the UP route through the Las  Vegas area, replicating the trains, locomotives and traffic that ran through town as of 2015.  We'd appreciate any information on train symbols, frequency of operation, train consists, etc to help him with his research.  Train photos around that same time would also be of interest.

Thanks much,

Mark
 

Mark, the only two things that stick out were the export iron ore trains and there was still some coal. The rest was AC4400s, SD70Ms,
SD40s on the locals and the train consists while smaller are similar to what runs today. Locally the bif thing was the downgrade of the
downtown yard, the move out to Arden, and the growth in the facility in North Vegas. Locals should be of much more help.

Out 

Here's some of what you want, from this 2015 post-  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3721542,3722004#msg-3722004

Date: 04/20/15 17:36
Re: LA&SL Las Vegas traffic??
Author: mapboy
The trains running close to a regular time are the following eastbounds.  Times are PDT in Las Vegas.  The westbounds seem to get there when they get there.  More detail here-  <http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3599499,3600166#msg-3600166&amp;gt; 

ZLAAH 0800-0900 Tu-Su; 53' domestic Double Stacks, occasionally autos, DPU 
ZLADV 1230-1400 Tu-Th, Sa; 53' DS, often head autos, often trailers; short, only 20-55 platforms  
ZCIG1 2000? Tu-Sa; 95-100 53' DS 
KLBG3 replaced the KLBG2, if it's in the same time slot, then after midnight We-Sa Mo; mostly 40' international DS, mid-train autos 
MWCNP 1800-2100 daily 
MWCRO works Arden 0800-1100 daily 
​mapboy


The link above leads to this-

Date: 12/10/14 15:21
Re: Nipton, Ca, train count
Author: mapboy
I agree with Boomer, about 11 trains per day. I saw 7 in 10 hours on 11/26/14, and there were at least 5 others that day, a good day. Current summary below, additions/corrections welcome.  

Trains on the Caliente Sub are on MST, trains on the Cima Sub are on PST. Trains that are normally DPU may operate without DPU when trains have low tonnage. West Colton-Las Vegas is 262 miles. If this is hard to read, pulling your page wider may help. 

Intermodal ebd.: 
ZLADV passes Tu-Th, Sa; head autos, domestic (53') Double Stacks, tofc (trailers), occasional marine (40-48') DS, no DPU 
ZCIG1 Tu-Sa; 95-110 all dom DS, no tofc, no marine DS; DPU, allowed 8,200' 
KLBG2 We-Sa Mo; marine DS, 8-45 midtrain autos, 3-6 dom DS, no tofc; DPU; works Valley Yard in North LV 
ZLAAH Tu-Sa; mostly dom DS, no tofc, no marine, occ. autos; DPU 
ITSLN1 origin Mo, time varies a lot thru LV; replaced KTSLN4; TS= K Line, Hanjin, Hamburg Sud, Evergreen 

Intermodal wbd.- 
ISCLB We-Mo, origin Tu-Su; dom DS, marine DS, tofc, occ. autos, mty UPS for LA; works Valley; shorter, no DPU 
KG1CI Fr-Mo; origin Tu-Fr; dom DS, often? DPU 
KG1LA Fr-Mo, origin We-Sa; dom DS, occ. marine+tofc+UPS for CI, LA; long, mostly DPU 
KG1LAC WeTh, origin MoTu; all dom DS, mostly DPU 
KG3LB Th-Tu, origin Mo-Sa; marine DS, occ. dom DS, long, DPU, 2/3 K Line, 1/3 APL, some Evergreen 

Manifests- all daily trains 
MWCNP look for corn syrup, ethanol, mostly DPU 
MWCRO look for ECXX dirty dirt, coal mtys, occ. DPU; works Arden (south side LV) 
MNPWC corn syrup, ethanol, mid or rear DPU 
MSCWC Pabco wallbd, ECXX dirty dirt, lately DPU; works Arden 

Average time for scheduled trains at LV- note westbounds KG3LB, MNPWC and MSCWC are often quite variable, sometimes there will be none or two in one day. 
Su (8)- ISCLB 0400, KG1CI 0800, KG1LA 0830, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
Mo (10)- KLBG2 0200, ISCLB 0400, ZLAAH 0800, KG1CI 0800, KG1LA 0830, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
Tu (8)- ZLAAH 0800, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, ZLADV 1330, ZCIG1 2000, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
We (10)- KLBG2 0200, ISCLB 0400, ZLAAH 0800, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, KG1LAC 1200, ZLADV 1330, ZCIG1 2000, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
Th (11)- KLBG2 0200, ISCLB 0400, ZLAAH 0800, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, KG1LAC 1200, ZLADV 1330, ZCIG1 2000, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
Fr (11)- KLBG2 0200, ISCLB 0400, ZLAAH 0800, KG1CI 0800, KG1LA 0830, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, ZCIG1 2000, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 
Sa (12)- KLBG2 0200, ISCLB 0400, ZLAAH 0800, KG1CI 0800, KG1LA 0830, KG3LB 0900, MNPWC 0900, MWCRO 1150, ZLADV 1330, ZCIG1 2000, MWCNP 2145, MSCWC 2145 

Unit trains- 
Coal- 2/day, roughly in order of frequency to Metro Ports (symbol LB) seen in 85-95 UP system cars; to ACE Cogen at Trona (TR); to Moapa north of LV (MA) in NVPX cars; to Argus Cogen at Trona (TA); to Victorville (VV); to Cushenbury Mitsubishi Cement (CU); to Mojave for California Portland Cement plants in 105 UP cars (MJ); to Wasco (RW), hasn't stopped yet; to Rillito, AZ cement (RI) in 92-93 UP cars. 

Iron ore from Iron Springs (IS) on PICR near Milford, UT, mothballed due to low ore prices, was 4 loads per week. Uses 91 RCGX open hoppers. 

Ethanol- 1 per week to/from West Colton UEUMWC, many re-symbolled at Yermo to UEYRWC; 80-82 tanks, most DPU 

Military- to/from Yermo- SYRxx 

Cement- 2 loads, 2 empties per week RMJLVC 42-47 cement covered hoppers to Pan Western transload in LV; returns next day as RLVMJC. 

Grain- occasionally to Kaiser and LA Harbor 

Ballast WMUxxB from/to the pit at Murdock, UT, 23-60 cars no DPU 

Baretables: L.A. area to/from Kelso for temporary storage, even more to/from Yermo 

Auto repos- 2/week, 53-67 mty auto racks, no DPU, most common- AROEPR, AROEGR, APRMLX 

occ. intermodal detours from congested Golden State Route 

LOCALS as of late December 2012, PST unless noted: Mo-Sa LUM40,42,46,48,49,55; Su- only LUM40 and 48; none are R/C. 
LUM40- 40 Job daily 1000, occ. 0800 Arden yard sw., serves Sloan (also Jean?). 
LUM42- Vegas-Valley Mo-Fr 0620MST, Valley-Pan Wrn.-Desert Siding-Nellis spur 
LUM44- Vegas-Valley 1400MST Su only, Valley-Pan Wrn.-Desert Siding-Nellis spur 
LUM46- Vegas-Valley 1800-1900MST Mo-Fr, Valley-Pan Wrn.-Desert Siding-Nellis spur 
LUM48- 48 Job 1300 Mo-Sa, Arden-BMI Henderson 
LUM49- 49 Hauler Job 1230-1500 Su-Fr, distributes cars from Arden to Valley and Apex and return 
LUM55- Mead Lake Local 1000 Su-Fr Apex-Moapa-Mead Lake [to Mead Lake Tu Th?] 

NIS arrives at Apex from wallboard plant from noon to 1 p.m., as of 6/1/13.
mapboy

OUTSTANDING, as usual, mapboy.  much appreciated...............

66

Thanks for the comments.  Just so I'm clear on this, in 2015 would they have been operating out of Arden or from the old yard downtown?  How about crew changes?

Thanks,

Mark

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mark, the only two things that stick out were the
> export iron ore trains and there was still some
> coal. The rest was AC4400s, SD70Ms,
> SD40s on the locals and the train consists while
> smaller are similar to what runs today. Locally
> the bif thing was the downgrade of the
> downtown yard, the move out to Arden, and the
> growth in the facility in North Vegas. Locals
> should be of much more help.
>
> Out 

I think the crew change was still downtown but that was about the time the Henderson was working out of Arden.

Out 

Mapboy,

Thanks very much for compiling and sharing all of that information.  I revised the formatting a little bit then forwarded the information to the guy who had asked for it.  He is a modeler living in Scotland. 

I hope all of that won't discourage him from his project.  The variability and uncertainty of our operations is often difficult for those outside of North America to comprehend (especially those used to regular, "timetable-style" freight operations of Western Europe).

Thanks again for the help.

Take care,

Mark

 

The car count on the Henderson Local is at nearly twice what am averaghe freight in the UK might be. We didnt't
even mention the Tonopah and Tidewater which could be modeled in reasonable space. It's basically a loop with a
variety of transload commodities featuring tanks, several varieties of hoppers and some box cars. 

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/20 15:17 by callum_out.

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the crew change was still downtown but
> that was about the time the Henderson was working
> out of Arden.
>
> Out 

I can confirm that at least in Spring of 2015, the crew changes were downtown, as the new yard office at Arden was not quite open yet.

As mapboy's comprehensive post indicates, different locals worked out of different yards (Arden, Valley, Apex) but none out of downtown that I recall when I chased trains in the area in 2015.

Thanks to everyone who replied to provide information about UP ops in the LV area in 2015.  I passed everything on to the Scot, hopefully he can make some use out of it. 

Really appreciate all of the prompt, thoughtful replies.

Take care,

Mark